Father Groeschel steps down from EWTN show
www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/father-groeschel-steps-down-from-ewtn-show/
Irondale, Ala., Sep 4, 2012 / (CNA).- Franciscan friar Father Benedict Groeschel has stepped down as host of EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime television show following his apology for making comments about the sexual abuse of minors.
“Father Benedict has led a life of tremendous compassion and service to others and his spiritual insights have been a great gift to the EWTN family for many years. We are profoundly grateful to him and assure him of our prayers,” Michael P. Warsaw, president and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, said Sept. 3.
“At the same time, we ask our EWTN family to pray for all those who have been affected by this painful situation and in particular those who have been victims of sexual abuse.”
Fr. Groeschel decided to step down from the program after consulting with EWTN and with his religious community, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Warsaw said.
In a National Catholic Register interview published Aug. 27, Fr. Groeschel suggested that a minor is “the seducer” in “a lot” of sexual abuse cases. He said he was inclined to think that abusers on their first offense should not go to jail “because their intention was not committing a crime.”
Fr. Groeschel apologized for the remarks last week, saying he did not intend to “blame the victim.” He affirmed that a priest or anyone else who abuses a minor is “always always wrong” and “always responsible.”
“I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone,” the priest said, adding that his mind and his way of expressing himself are “not as clear as they used to be.”
Warsaw said the comments at the EWTN-owned National Catholic Register “should never have been published” and “in no way” reflect the views of the Register or EWTN.
“It should have been obvious to the editor that Father Benedict’s physical condition and mental clarity have deteriorated and that the comments were completely inconsistent with his life’s work and witness,” the EWTN president said. “We apologize that these remarks were published and ask for forgiveness for this error.”
EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime program will continue with other Franciscan Friars of the Renewal serving as hosts.
Such as Fr. Andrew Apostoli of “Fatima for Today” fame?
Or Fr. “Stan the Man” Fortuna?
’nuff sed.
EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!TN and its neo-con/neo-Cat/hipsters have yet to manage to right the ship since poor ol’ Mother Angelica was snookered out of her say on the board.
Here and there some few good souls do still manage to get things quite right on the air and not all of what goes out to the world is completely screwy. Only, some of it.
But that bit is always a disaster. Fr. Roberts, Fr. Francis Whatever-his-name-was-afore-he-went-gaga-fer-da-widow-lady, Fr. John Blacksheepdog Corapi and now….
If the network did not have ample financial reserves it would likely have gone under long ago. Had it been dependent on teeny weeny donations from pious souls seeking some relief from their local ordinaries and Fr. Flapdoodles, any one or two of those incidents would likey have dried up the well.
And, of course, the impetus for those reserves is the insatiable appetite of the Bogus Ordo/Medjugoogoo/charismaniac crowd, fueled by the trend-o-matic hijackers in good ol’ sunny Nova Roma – where everything’s beautiful all the time and the deer and the antelope play, where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.
Bogus Ordo – the perpetual financing motion machine has finally been invented!
And, yes, Virginia. It’s ALWAYS about the Benjamins.
Under the proper leadership, EWTN could be an amazing asset for the faith on so many levels.
Unfortunately, as with nearly every other facet of the Church, we have to wait until boomers, pinkos homos and apostates die off.
“Father Groeschel steps down” or thrown out? His files have disappeared from the EWTN document and audio libraries!
Stalinization.
Techical groundwork for “Photoshop” may very well have been invented in the USSR.
Here today. Complete void tomorrow.
EEEEEWWWWW!TN’s PR gurus are probably Russian. Hey, what ain’t on the air or the ‘net, NEVER EVEN HAPPENED, Comrades!
I think they are inspired by the same folks who managed to convince a billion Catholics that, concerning Church history, NOTHING happened before 1965.
Deo gratias! A step in the right direction. Let’s keep hoping for the end of the Bogus Ordo/Medjugoogoo/charismaniac crowd. It’s sad, but the N.O. cults, neo-Modernists, pinkos and fags will probably hold dominance until Russia is consecrated to Our Lady. I hope my kids get to see the consecration. In the meantime, they don’t get to see EWTN.
The most disturbing aspect of this incident is that it was most likely not so much a difficulty in expressing himself as it was a bit of unintentional honesty — not that his excusing of abusers is true, but that what he said accurately expressed his opinion.
While it is well past time for Fr. Groeschel (or is it “Rabbi”? Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether he’s Catholic or Jewish!) to be put out to pasture, it is highly improbable that replacing him with another member of his community will be even a slight improvement. This entire group strikes me as a club for celibate quasi-protestant social workers with only a thin veneer of Catholicity. Why not replace him with… well, I guess an SSPX priest would be out of the question at this point, but maybe someone from the FSSP or ICKSP. or another history program with the Bogles? Pretty much anything other than “Theology of the Body” or other JPII-ist fawning would have to be better than another CFR guy.
The Bogles are pleasant
The Bogles are nice
I chanced once to meet both
And would have done, twice!
As to Traddies, however,
Though both be most clever
They’d likely prefer
That out heads all be severed
Yep, sad but true. I did meet them when they visited historic and magnificent St. Anthony of Padua’s in Buffalo several years ago. Absolutely smashing couple and even more Brit and more wit than comes off on their always delightful appearances on, uhhh, ( hate to say it ) EEEEEWWWWW!TN.
How anyone can just absolutely KNOW as much as Jamie about English history and then end up a Bogus Ordo apologist…..
Mysteries beyond comprehension.
Anyway, Glornt, yes! Even if they’d be elucidating and speculating as we were all taken off to the Tower to await beheading at dawn, the Bogles would be IMMEASURABLY more useful and entertaining than anything from the FFR crowd.
You characterization is entirely apt. Several of their young’uns came to Buffalo, also years ago, and I thought they were part of the USA Olympic Wrestling Team. They had VERY serious muscles on ‘em, probably in their late 20s or early 30s. They also had a couple of absolute knock-outs with them. How that all figured, I dunno. They WERE praying in a famous Buffalo church. That’s all I can say. Then, again, maybe they were part of an apostolate specializing in evangelizing gorgeous women?
It was just weird.